Are women over-represented in video games?

[vivster]

HylianSwordsman said:

vivster said:

@Jaicee
Art and fiction is not and should not be about equal representation so this question is moot.

Calling something over or under represented is suggesting that there is a right amount of representation, which is false.

Within an actual individual work of art, sure, there is no "right" amount of representation. That's absurd. For one, there's no way to measure it, for another, doing so would limit art in absurd ways.

That said, representation in art can matter in the sense that it would be just if everyone had equal access to all artistic mediums, and equitable access to platforms by which to show that art to the world. A woman may have no interest in telling stories about women, may want to make something with an all or mostly male cast for whatever reason, and that's her business. However, if society systematically makes it difficult or impossible for women to make art or distribute art, then the woman will be at an unfair disadvantage to make her art or show it to the world. So how many characters in a work are female, male, black, white, gay, straight, etc. doesn't really matter, it matters that the artist gets to make the art as they see fit, regardless of how closely the demographics of characters in the work match the real world. However, if getting into the industry that makes the art and markets it to audiences systematically excludes people based on things they can't help like their sex or race, that's pretty unfair, wouldn't you say? This doesn't mean that you have to hire female actors, directors, programmers, designers, etc. to meet a quota, it means nothing more than that a world that gives everyone a chance to produce and promote art based on the merits of the art rather than the demographics of the artist is a better world than one that doesn't afford everyone that chance, and if possible, we should work towards making the better world a reality.

That doesn't seem to be describing the reality I see. There is literally nothing preventing women to create and distribute art or games for that matter. No one is barring women to publish their games on steam, no one is barring women from getting a job int the gaming industry. In fact women are even singled out and used to represent games.

The industry is male oriented because the majority of the audience are male. We all know those statistics that claim women are just as engaged in gaming as men but that's simply not true when it comes to the AAA/hardcore market. Women are just on average less interested in gaming and that is fine. Men aren't that interested in the fashion business either while most women don't care very much about cars and so on. That's what we get in our gender obsessed society. If you want to "fix" the gaming industry or any industry for that matter, you have to first fix society and all that gender bullshit that forces people into being stereotypes.